


Stars Aligned

by Silvershadow989



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Keith (Voltron) Angst, Keith (Voltron) Whump, Keith (Voltron)-centric, Klance happens later, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-21
Updated: 2018-11-28
Packaged: 2019-05-26 16:39:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15005006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvershadow989/pseuds/Silvershadow989
Summary: Something's wrong with Keith, like he's cursed or something, he's steadily getting worse, can the others save him???





	1. Chapter 1

_Hand's grabbing his hair and dragging him up the stairs, small hands and a pleading voice, begging to let go and be left alone_

_A harsh laugh, and a kick to his ribs. "Naughty boy's get punished." Keith sobbed, body going limp as the fight drained out off him. The 9 year old was pushed into the bathroom and onto his knees. The tight grip on his hair became tighter, if possible, and Keith whimpered in pain. Then his head was forced into the water, Keith struggling to get his head back out, to actually breathe, but Paul wasn't letting him. He panicked and struggled more, only for Paul to lean against him, trapping him between the man's weight and the bathtub. The air was slowly, painfully forced out of his lungs and in his desperation inhaled a mouthful of water. He managed to lift his head up enough to take a deep breath before he was plunged back in and the struggling begins again. His vision began going hazy and he couldn't breath. He gelt himself start to stop struggling._

_Maybe it's best to give up and drift away he thought drowsily. He gasped when he was pulled out of the water, shaking and coughing up water. He was too weak to fight Paul as the foster parent shoved his head back_ _under._

 

9 Years Later

 

Keith shook in Red's cockpit as he took in the view before him. Water. Everywhere. He was tempted to turn Red around and fly her straight back to the castle, or a desert planet. That would be better than the water planet he was now scowling it.

He blinked when Shiro's face popped up over their private connection.

"Are you ok with going to this planet?" The elder asked quietly and Keith nodded slightly.

"I can't let my fear of water control me. It was nine years ago after all, I should be over it." Keith muttered, eyes fixed ahead of him. He jumped when Red growled in disagreement.

" _My Paladin, your fear is justified, you have every right to not take part in this battle._ " The lion said and Keith swallowed. " _The others will not think you are weak, if the black paladin tell's them they will understand_." She continued.

Keith remained silent, perhaps he should tell the others, even if they would laugh and make fun off him.

"Keith, we both know the doctor told you too 'face your fears', but he meant using baby steps, like, having a glass of water occasionally. Not going too massive planets who are 89% water. That's the quickest way to trigger your aquaphobia. You know that." Shiro said gently unaware of what Red had said. (A/N: Ha! I rhymed!!) Keith gritted his teeth when Shiro mentioned his least favourite word. He hated it. He hated this, the fear, the overwhelming need to escape a situation, the fear, the flashbacks of his hands held behind his back and his head held underwater until he was sure he was going to die. His breathing hitched and his pulse jumped up. He could hear it in his head, so, so similar too when Paul was punishing him, pushing his head under the water and laughing as he slowly stopped struggling.

Suddenly he was nine years old and he was drowning again. 

" _Breathe cub, there is no need to be scared, not while I am with you_." Red's mind wrapped around his own, soothing his fractured thoughts. She used her own memories to help him remember where he was and Keith eventually calmed down, stopped hyperventilating and opened his eyes.

"...Keith..?" Shiro, that was Shiro. He looked up through his fringe at the older man, feeling slightly guilty at the thought of making Shiro look that worried.

" I'm fine." He said hoarsely, inwardly cringing at the sound of his own voice.

"... Are you..?" Shiro asked, concern lingering in the steel gray. Keith nodded slowly, making sure to keep eye contact with him so Shiro could see the resolve in his eyes.

He could do this.

 

* * *

 

He can't do this.

'This' being a walk over thin ice, that could easily give way at any given moment. It was already cracked from the other's walking across it. They were now waiting on solid land for him, each doing something while waiting for him to get his shit together. Pidge was messing with some tech thing, occasionally glancing at him and huffing, rolling her eyes and just generally showing displeasure at him taking so long. Hunk was eating, trying out Gyranian food and making a pile of stuff he liked and didn't like. Hunk wasn't even looking at him. Lance was hurling insults across the ice, each word making Keith want to walk in the other direction, hide in Red's cockpit where he'd be safe, away from the water.

Away from the danger.

Shiro was the only one who wasn't getting angry. The black paladin was watching him with concern, and looked ready to run back across to him.

"Keith, it's safe. I promise." He said, voice carrying over the ice. Steel met indigo and Shiro dipped his head, leaving Keith with the hidden meaning. The 'you can do this' echoing mentally. He allowed himself to breathe for a minute or two, deep calming breaths that beat the anxiety and fear back down his throat.

He stepped onto the ice, took another step, then another, and another, all while forcing himself not to listen to the horrible cracking sound. That's when the ice below him cracked and he fell into the frozen water under it. The water was cold, and he immediately started shivering, even though it was just his legs in the water, he'd managed to grab another bit of ice too stop himself falling in, but he didn't have the strength too pull himself up. Blood was rushing through his head, and he could barely hear the other paladin's. He could only try too hold on and hope that someone would rescue him.

One of his hands slipped and Keith sobbed. He didn't have time to brace himself as he lost his grip entirely, falling into the icy water.


	2. Emeto - phobia

Lance had been moving the minute the ice cracked. He knew the water temperature here was freezing, and Keith had little to no chance to survive, every second counted. He had to slow down slightly when he reached the thinner ice, not wanting it to crack and make him fall to. He was aware that the other paladin's yelling behind him but he blanked them out, only focussing on where Keith had fell. When he reached the hole he activated his suit warmer and oxygen mask before taking a deep breath and jumping in.

It was cold, very, very cold. Lance fought the urge to jump right back out and instead used his jetpack too propel himself deeper so he could retrieve the older paladin. The dark water made it hard to see, and the cold had him shivering violently, but he continued onwards. Someone had to be the hero. Might as well be him.

Lance finally caught sight of Keith when his teeth were chattering and his legs were numb, which wasn't good. The darkness made it hard to see Keith's face, so all he did was wrap one of the limp paladin's arm's around his shoulders and bring one of his own arms around Keith's waist. With that, he started floating up, praying his jetpack had enough fuel in it to last them the entire journey. Lance was a strong swimmer but not when carrying another person, it made things significantly harder. He looked up and sighed when he saw the hole Keith had fallen though, looking at the older boy as he urged the jetpack too go faster. 

They both broke the surface with plenty of splashing and shocked exclamations from the others. Lance didn't respond to them, just helped Shiro drag the limp boy out of the water before allowing Hunk to pull him out. As soon as he was out he crawled too where Shiro was trying to wake the motionless figure up. Up close he could finally see that Keith was unnaturally pale. He wasn't shivering at all and his lips were tinged with blue. Lance knew the signs of hypothermia when he saw them and shrugged the blanked Hunk had draped across his shoulders off and around Keith. He then looked at Shiro.

"We need to get him somewhere warm as soon as possible. He's hypothermic and getting worse because of this wind. He needs shelter." The Cuban said firmly, Shiro nodded, scooping up the eighteen-year-old and quickly moving back across the ice to where several Urilin's were waiting. 

"Come on buddy, you need to get dry too!" Hunk muttered and Lance nodded distractedly. His energy suddenly hit zero and he fell to his knees, before collapsing sideways, out like a light.

 

Shiro watched as Keith burrowed closer to him, the violent shivering making his teeth chatter. He sighed as Keith made another distressed noise and scrunched his face up, as if he was looking at something he didn't like. He knew the red paladin would be having nightmares, and possibly reliving the near death experience from nine years ago. There wasn't much he could do except rub his back and run fingers through his hair.

He winced when Keith started muttering in his sleep, quiet plea's for the torment to end. Shiro shushed him, holding his surrogate brother closer as the shivering started to slowly die down. He hid his face in Keith's now dry hair and prayed that Keith would be ok. 

 

One week later had Keith leaning his head against the cold wall as he coughed harshly. His body was wracked with shivers, and he couldn't stop coughing and sneezing. Ugh, he hated this, the feeling of being helpless. He was 18, not 8! Another round of coughing had him stumbling, falling too his knees. 

After the coughing fit subsided he leant heavily against the wall and considered his options; tell the team and let them help, only tell one person and trust that they wouldn't tell the others, or not tell anyone. He had already tried the third option, after waking up from falling into that water last week. He was glad he had fell unconscious as soon as he had let go, otherwise some ... unpleasant memories would rear their ugly head and send him back into that mute phase he'd fell into the first time he'd almost drowned. 

He shook his head and attempted to stop himself coughing as he shakily unhooked is communicator from its place on his belt and opened his and Shiro's private connection. 

Shiro picked up immediately and Keith couldn't help but sigh in relief as his older brother's face came into view.

"Keith? What's wrong?" The older male asked as he took in his companion's glassy eyes.

"I think I'm sick." He mumbled in reply, turning and coughing into his elbow. He heard Shiro sigh and blinked when he realised that he was being spoken to.

"Stay there, I'm going to help you to your room so I can figure out how ill you really are, ok?" He asked, keeping his voice calm and Keith felt himself nodding dazedly, waiting for Shiro too disconnect before he flipped the communicator closed and tried to clip it back onto his belt.

He coughed again and froze when he gagged.

He then lent against the wall, sitting very still, and trying his hardest not to cough. He wasn't going too do it, he wasn't going to be sick.

He hardly registered anything other than the slightly acidic taste at the back of his throat and the all encompassing fear. He didn't even register the fact that he was crying till Shiro arrived, the older man dropping down next to him and asking questions. The words sounded far off and distorted to Keith, who had started coughing again, he sobbed slightly when he gagged again. He took a shuddery breath and tried to focus on Shiro, on what he was saying, but he couldn't stop gagging and retching and panicking.

He was caught in a vicious cycle of retch, panic, cough, gag, retch that he couldn't escape from, no matter how hard he tried to stop coughing or panicking. He could only close his eyes and pray that he wouldn't actually be sick, because that was the worst thing that could happen in this situation. 

Keith flailed as he was pulled forward, his head hitting Shiro's chest and resting there as Shiro's metal hand slowly began rubbing his back and his flesh hand began massaging his throat. The black paladin didn't say anything, he just continued his actions till Keith could breathe properly. Only then did he let go and look at the indigo eyed boy. Said iris' still held traces of panic that Shiro watches slowly disperse till he knew that Keith was in his right state of mind again. Once he was sure that he had Keith's attention he looked him straight in the eye and quietly asked something he'd been wondering since he'd gotten the call on his communicator.

"Why didn't you tell me?"


	3. Unconsciousness

Lance blinked when Shiro ran past him, looking worried. He shared a look with Pidge and Hunk who also looked confused.

 

"Should we go after him..?" Pidge asked after a minute. The older boys nodded and all three sprang up and ran in the direction Shiro had gone of in.

 

It took them a while to find the others. They got there in time to see Shiro gently pick Keith up, the eighteen year old mumbling quietly. Keith, Lance noticed, was pale, too pale. Not only that, he was sweaty and shaking and had his hand pressed firmly against his mouth, like he was trying not to be sick.

 

The three of the moved out of the eldest's way, and he nodded his thanks as he walked towards Keith's room. The other three followed, sharing a look of worry between themselfves before following the black paladin.

 

It was a silent trip, no one daring to interrupt the moment Shiro and Keith seemed to be having. Shiro was the one talking, quietly asking Keith questions that were answered with a slight nod or shake. When they reached Keith's room, Shiro motioned for them to wait outside and then took Keith inside.

 

"What do you think is wrong with him?" Hunk asked after the door closed. Pidge sighted and looked down, biting her lip as she became lost in thought. "It can't be serious, right?"The yellow paladin whispered, looked worried, his large brown eyes watering slightly. Lance patted his arm in a comforting manner, eyes downcast as he remembered how small Keith had looked when Shiro carried him. It was hard to remember that Keith was only a year older than him, especially since he was so far ahead in piloting skills and training. It was a shock to see someone like Keith being carried around without complaint.

 

"It could just be that he was sick. I mean, he hasn't been looking and sounding too healthy recently." Pidge said, finally looking up. Her eyes were narrowed, calculating.

 

"What do you mean?" Lance asked. "He looked fine two hours ago!"

 

"He's been coughing throughout the night, not eating as much and trying to avoid direct contact with everyone." Pidge explained. Lance faltered with his train of thought. Pidge was right, that wasn't typical Keith behaviour. "Before we jump to conclusions, we should ask Shiro though. He'd know." She continued.

 

As if she'd summoned him, Shiro left Keith's room. Once the door was closed he sighed tiredly and leaned against the door. He rubbed his face roughly before looking at the trio.

 

"I guess you guys want an explanation?" He asked and sighed again when the three of them nodded. "Meet me in the rec room." He muttered, walking in the opposite direction.

* * *

 

Shiro frowned at himself in the mirror. Keith being ill was bad enough, but Shiro also had to explain what Lance, Hunk and Pidge just saw. That would mean telling them everything, and Shiro didn't want to, but it couldn't be helped. He left the bathroom and headed to where the other paladins were, stopping at the sick boy's room and peeking in. Keith was sound asleep, and hopefully would stay that way till everything was explained.

 

He carried on walking and stopped outside the door, composing his thoughts before stepping in. Lance, Pidge and Hunk were sitting next to each other, back's ramrod straight. All three of them were watching him quietly.

 

He sat down opposite them and looked at them all before speaking. "I know you guys are worried about Keith, but he's fine, it's just a bad cough really. The thing that makes it harder for him is that he has a sensitive gag reflex, and coughing is the fastest way to male him throw up. Mix that with him having Emetophobia and it's a recipe for disaster."

 

"Emetophobia?" Lance asked and Pidge spoke up, adjusting her glasses.

 

"Emetophobia, the fear of being physically sick, right?" She asked, looking at Shiro. He nodded and the three of them deflated slightly.

 

"Is that why his hand was covering his mouth? Because he didn't want to throw up?" Hunk asked and Shiro nodded again.

 

"While were on the topic of Keith's phobia's, I want you to remember how cautious Keith was about walking over the ice about a week ago on Urrilla." Shiro started, getting the youngest paladins attention. They all nodded.

 

"When he was being silly over the ice cracking? And refused to walk across it at first and was wasting out time, yeah, I remember." Lance muttered bitterly, missing the way Shiro clenched his fists.

 

"Lance." He warned, getting an innocent look from the blue paladin.

 

"What?" He asked.

 

"Keith has severe Aqua-phobia, there are days when he can't even touch tap water to drink it." He ground out through clenched teeth, feeling a slight sense of satisfaction at how pale Lance had gone. "Remembering why he's scared of water can give him a panic attack.  On a bad day, just thinking of water can give him a panic attack. That wasn't Keith being stubborn, he didn't want to go near it. At all. Got it?" He hissed and Lance nodded quickly. He sat back, satisfied that he had gotten that important point across.

 

"Then there's Keith and being ill in general. He doesn't have a phobia, but he does hate looking weak in front of everyone. Thats mainly because of how he was treated when he was younger, he was mostly kicked about if he showed weakness. All three gasped and Lance exclaimed a "What the fuck?" In disgust.

 

"Thats why he's so closed off to new people. Now, while you process this, I'm going to check on Keith." With them parting words he stood and turned on his heel, fleeing the room. He needed to ask Keith a couple of questions, but, if he was still asleep he would leave him.

 

He felt kinda bad just walking out on the other three but he needed to make sure Keith wasn't falling back into the headspace he'd been in when he was first adopted by Shiro. He couldn't let that happen, it had almost killed Keith.

 

He quietly waited for Keith's door to open, and when it did he looked inside. He was both relieved and worried, because Keith was awake, but looked like he was crying. He slipped into the room and quietly edged towards the bed, watching Keith carefully.

 

"Keith?" He asked quietly, and winced internally when Keith jumped, head whipping towards him.

 

"Oh" Keith mumbled, relaxing from the tense position he had been in. "It's you."

 

"Just me." Shiro confirmed, and Keith nodded before coughing harshly, body shaking. Shiro scooted closer and wrapped an arm around him, rubbing his back soothingly. "Why didn't you tell me you were ill sooner?" He asked and Keith's shoulders slumped.

 

"Didn't wanna seem weak." He muttered, turning to hide his face in Shiro's shoulder. "Didn't wanna disappoint you either..." Keith admitted. Shiro sighed.

 

"Why would you disappoint me Keith? You fell through some ice and suffered from mild hypothermia, i'm not surprised that you're sick." Shiro said. Keith looked at him through his fringe with wide eyes.

 

"Oh" he said again. Shiro smiled, still rubbing his back in an effort to try get him to sleep. It worked quick enough, Keith's breathing evening out as he closed his eyes and went limp in Shiro's hold.

* * *

 

When Keith woke up he was comfortable, warm. He blinked sleepily and looked around, realising that Shiro was the reason. His adopted brother was wrapped around him, and apparently staring at him.

 

"You awake now?" The elder man asked, and Keith nodded in confusion. "Good, Hunk brought you some soup."

 

"He did? Why?" Keith asked as he struggled to sit up, why was it so hard?

 

"He thought you might be hungry when you woke up."

 

"Huh." He was ravenous actually. Keith allowed Shiro to help him sit up and pass him the bowl and spoon.

 

"How long was I asleep for? He asked between sips, narrowing his eyes when Shiro froze and sighed, running a hand through his hair.

 

"Three days."


	4. Deteriorate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own Voltron

Keith promptly spat his soup everywhere, turning and looking at Shiro with wide eyes.   
  
"What?" He asked, shocked.   
  
"Listen, you got pretty ill. Everyone was worried about you, and your fever broke about three hours ago. Coran wants to do a couple of tests later to see why you got so ill." Shiro explained. Now Keith actually thought about it, he realised he was shaking in exhaustion, which was weird considering how long he'd slept for. Not only that, his head was throbbing and he was still hungry.   
  
"What was wrong with me?" He asked quietly, looking into the cyan mush he'd been eating a minute ago.    
  
"Not much at first, you kept coughing and had a slight fever, but you wouldn't wake up when we tried to give you something to drink. Coran ran tests, but couldn't see anything wrong. He put you on an IV line thing and said he'd check on you during the night. He woke us up early hours next morning asking us to come look at something. You hadn't woken up, but had gotten worse, and Coran had noticed strange markings on your back. He said he'd monitor you, and alerted us if you got worse, which, you did. The marks kept spreading and your fever kept climbing. The second and last night we took shifts to keep checking on you. We were all worried." Shiro said. Oh, well shit. Keith took a deep breath, and hissed when his back and side flared lit up in pain, his head swam and he fell backwards. He was caught by two arms, one flesh and one metal. He tried to say something, get his vocal chords to work but the pain got worse, and the only noise he could make was a strangled cry of pain. He was dimly aware of Shiro calling his name but he couldn't say anything, couldn't do anything as his world went black.   


* * *

  
  
Coran blinked when his communicator sparked to life, signalling that one of the paladin's were hailing him. He opened the message, blinking as Shiro's face sprang into view.    
  
"Coran, I need you in Keith's room now, it's an emergency." He said, hanging up afterwards. Coran blinked at the small screen in shock before springing into action, tucking the communicator into his belt and running full speed to Keith's room,    
  
He could hear the cries before he reached the door, and opening said door made them louder. Once inside he looked at the situation.   
  
Keith was thrashing, and crying out repeatedly in pain. It was clear that the damn fever was back from how the red paladin was sweating yet shaking violently. Shiro was holding his shoulders down, and trying to get his attention, but it wasn't working. Coran darted forward, bringing the thin sheet down to Keith's waist and cursed when he saw that the black marks had started to spread again, and he quickly realised that every time they pulsed Keith would scream louder. He looked helplessly at Shiro, not knowing what to do, and wincing every time Keith screamed.    
  
"What's going on!" Lance said, rushing into the room with the others, stopping with a gasp as he took the in the scene before him.   
  
"I—I don't know!" Coran replied. Lance came forward, frowning as he thought.   
  
"Could we put him in a pod or something?" The blue paladin asked and Coran shook his head.    
  
"We've already tried that, it didn't work." He said, looking down. He brightened up again after a minute though, a new idea in his head. "The Nirrid berry and Jarkra water mixture helped though, and that is a powerful antitoxin! Maybe he's been poisoned!"    
  
"But by what?" Pidge asked, moving as Allura ran to go prep the medbay for Keith, who was now muttering incoherently. Shiro had already picked him up and was carrying him, wincing at how warm the boy's skin was.    
  
"Well there are nasty nippers in that lake he fell in, and, if one bit him it could be the venom from that. Worst case scenario is that a Ursilo is what attacked him." Coran said, now walking briskly to the infirmary.    
  
"Why?" Hunk asked, and he sighed.    
  
“Ursilo’s are horrible fish that burrow into their victim’s skin. They rip their way through skin and muscle, so they can lay eggs in the victim’s bone marrow, stomach lining or, if they’re really unlucky, a victim’s daraking!”   
  
“Uhhh.... Human’s don’t have a daraking...” Lance muttered quietly.    
  
“Oh... Anyway, good news is that Keith probably doesn’t have an Ursilo laying eggs in him, bad news is that I don’t know what’s wrong with him.” Coran said, quickly moving into the infirmary, where Allura and Shiro had already set the IV line up and attached it to Keith. Keith was laying on a medical bed with his head on Shiro’s lap and was finally in some semblance of peace.   
  
The thin blanket was bunched around his waist, showing how much the black marks had spread. Once a small cluster, they were now long tendrils extending across his skin. The pale skin surrounding the tendrils was pale and inflamed. The black tendrils had wrapped around his waist and had started to move up his side.    
  
“Princess, can you help me move him? I would like to look at his back.” Coran requested, getting a muted nod from Allura. She, with Shiro’s help, managed to get Keith to lay on his stomach, giving Coran access to his back. He froze when he saw the hard substance where the tendrils had originated from, wincing at the fact that Keith’s skin seemed fused to it. He gently pressed his hand against the skin near it and Keith flinched, almost trying to get away from him. It took Shiro whispering soothing words to get him to calm down. Coran frowned and grabbed a clean syringe from the table near to him then quickly drew some blood so he could then test it later. For now, he helped the others turn Keith back over and lifted the blanket up higher, settling it around Keith’s shoulders.   
  
He then turned away from the sick boy and cracked his fingers. Time to see if Keith’s blood could help figure out what was going on.   
  
  


 


	5. Feverish

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YEET IM BACK SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG PLS DONT KILL MEH 
> 
> LOOK I DID I FIX OF A SITUATION

It was a long ten minute wait for they analysis of Keith's blood. 10 long minutes of watching the boy shake and whimper. It made Kaite feel sick. The the scanner beeped and everyone's head whipped towards where Coran was frowning at the small screen on the analyser.

"Well, that can't be good." He finally muttered and Hunk gulped.

"What do you mean?" Shiro asked from besides Keith and Coran turned to look at him solemnly.

"T--There's poison in his blood, but I've never seen anything like it before. Whatever it is, it's reacting to his quintessence levels. That's why he's so sick, but I don't think I have the right ingredients to even attempt to make a cure. I can slow it down and I might be able to put it into a state of dormancy but that state won't last long and the poison will eventually adapt." The advisor explained and Shiro took a shaky breath, forcing himself to not panic.

"What about other planets, or even the Blade? They could know a cure right? Then all we need to do is keep it dormant until we can give him the antidote." Katie asked, hoping that it could potentially work.

Everyone watched as Coran thought it over before nodding slowly. "Very well." He said slowly. "We will ask other planets if they have encountered an illness like this before and if they can help us with the antidote. But we don't have much time, a movement at most."

"..... You mean we only have a week to save Keith?" Lace asked in a small voice. The cuban boy looked as if he was about to cry. Coran nodded numbly and everyone else frowned. Keith then whimpered again and Shiro sighed, combing his hands through Keith's raven locks. The teen stilled and Shiro looked up with a creased brow.

"Allura, can you start looking and asking other planets if they can find a cure?" He asked and Allura nodded, quietly leaving the room. Shiro then looked out over the other Paladins, all in various states of shock. Lance had tears in his eyes and was shaking. Hunk was sobbing, hunched in on himself and trembling, almost as if he was the one dying. Katie was frowning at the wall, almost as if it was holding the answers to this dilemma. Finally his gaze drifted over to Keith. The ravenette was paler than normal, except for the red splashed across his cheeks due to the fever. He was also shaking and mumbling slightly, just restless in general. It hurt Shiro's heart too see his younger brother like this, sick, with nothing that he could do to help apart from  run his flesh hand through the younger boy's hair and pray for a miracle.

* * *

 

Shiro never thought he'd call the Galra a miracle, yet he could only watch as the Blade doctor gently encouraged Keith to drink the mixture. After almost a week of Keith slowly getting weaker and weaker, paler and paler and watching the black mass slowly spread across his skin, Keith was finally starting to recover. It had been a long week of waiting, hoping and praying, with all the residents in the castle losing sleep trying to help there red paladin. Finally the transmission that Allura had sent out had reached the blades and Kolivan had immediately sent a doctor out to help.

It took a minute after the doctor had given Keith to drink to work but Keith eventually started breathing better and stopped shivering slightly, the tenseness in his muscles loosened and he seemed to relax, almost melting into the bed.

"It will take time but he will heal. If he is not fully recovered in a movement then give him another dose.” He murmured quietly and Coran nodded mutely, accepting a container that must of been more of whatever the doctor had given Keith.

“What about that black mass?” Katie asked quietly and the doctor frowned.

“I’d keep an eye on it. If it seems to get worse than take him to the planet where he first started showing signs of illness and ask the residents for help… It should fall off as the poison dies theoretically but I can’t be to certain.” The doctor said, finally looking up and away from Keith’s flushed face. Katie nodded and left, hopefully to go tell Allura what the doctor had said.

“Thank you.” Shiro said quietly after a minute that had been filled with Keith’s still somewhat laboured breathing. The doctor looked at him and shook his head.

“Do not thank me Black Paladin, I was merely doing my job.” He replied quietly and Shiro nodded, feeling slightly chatized. It was quiet as the doctor packed everything up and left the room, presumably heading back towards where his ship was docked in the hanger with the altean ships so that he go back to the base he came from, and Shiro was left with the sick boy.

* * *

A few hours later and Lance was the one watching over Keith. The blue paladin was deep in thought. One one hand he was praying that this medicine worked and helped Keith, because he didn't want him to die! But on the other hand, the hand that had guilt wracking through him constantly for thinking it, he _didn't_ want Keith to get better, because he could keep being close to him and helping him while he was sick without having to keep up the rivalry facade. Everytime the thought crossed his mind a wave of anger (at himself) and guilt crashed into him. He hated himself for thinking that, wanting the boy of his dreams to suffer so he could cuddle him without fear of Keith snapping at him or getting judged by Shiro. He knew it wasn't fair to think like that, the team would most likely be nothing but supportive if they found out is was bisexual but he couldnt really help it and the whole thing made him feel physically sick.

It was a pity he was lost in thought, as he didn’t see the indigo eyes (that he secretly loved) flicker open and hazily look around the room till they focused on his face. The thing that brought him out of his thought process was the weak voice calling his name.

“..... L--Lance?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this!
> 
> I do actually have a reason why this took so long to write, I was in an accident than college started but I also re-wrote this about 10 times because I was storying without a plan which was stressing me out.
> 
> Long note short I now have a plan for this!!!


End file.
